CAIRO (Reuters) - Two Egyptians were killed after Friday prayers between Islamist protesters and residents of a Cairo neighborhood, the interior ministry said in a statement. Police arrested 33 people in five provinces where skirmishes broke out between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and ousted President Mohamed Mursi and locals who support Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who ousted him, it said. Firearms and birdshot were used in Friday's...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah arrived in Cairo late on Friday, state television reported, for a symbolic visit underlining the strong support the ageing monarch is showing for new President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Abdullah landed in Cairo on his way home from Morocco, and is the first foreign leader to visit Sisi since he took office less than two weeks ago. It is the 90-year-old king's first visit to Cairo since the 2011 revolt that ousted autocrat...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A dispute between street vendors in Cairo turned into a gunfight in the early hours of Sunday, according to local media reports, with conflicting casualty tolls that could not be immediately confirmed. The website of the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the army and police had deployed to contain the confrontation in the Cairo district of Sayyeda Aisha on Sunday, the last day of voting in Egypt's presidential election. The Al-Ahram report did...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A policeman was killed in one of several small Islamist protests that erupted across Egypt on Friday, days after former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi after demonstrations, was sworn in as president. Islamist protests, a daily occurrence in the immediate aftermath of Mursi's fall last July, have become rare after a massive security crackdown on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hundreds have been killed and...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Soccer fans obstructed roads and a rail line in Egypt's capital on Wednesday to demand swift punishment of rival supporters and policemen blamed for the deaths of 74 people in a stadium disaster last year. A verdict in the case is due at the weekend, when thousands are expected to mark the second anniversary of Egypt's Arab Spring uprising with street protests against the Islamist-led government. The fans, who took a frontline role in the toppling of...

By Yasmine Saleh ABU HOMOS Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt's ultra-conservative Islamist Al Nour party is voicing interest in joining President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's new government as part of a strategy to replace the banned Moslem Brotherhood as the country's most influential Islamist movement. Al Nour chief Younes Makhyoun, who enjoys strong support in Egypt's poor cities and slum areas where Sisi's liberal-leaning allies are weak, said in an interview...

The day before Christmas, Egyptian democracy activist Ayman Nour was sentenced to 5 years of hard labor on trumped-up charges. Those charges were so flimsy that they don't deserve to be repeated. His real crime was that he dared challenge 77-year-old Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in last year's elections. The U.S. called for Nour's release, and the Egyptian government rejected those appeals. For the last several weeks, the question has been: Would the U.S. do more than issue mild diplomatic...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Cairo appeals court on Saturday canceled a prison sentence against a police officer convicted in connection with the deaths of 39 people last year during political violence, judicial sources said. In one of the most controversial incidents since the army ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last July, 39 men described by the Interior Ministry as Islamists, Muslim Brotherhood members and their supporters died during what the ministry...

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A Sudanese woman sentenced to death for converting to Christianity is expected to be released soon, a government official said on Saturday. "The related authorities in the country are working to release Mariam (Yahya Ibrahim), who was sentenced to death for apostasy, through legal measures," Foreign Ministry Under-Secretary Abdelah Al-Azrak told Reuters. "I expect her to be released soon," he added. (Reporting by Khalid Abdel...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Along a busy Cairo roundabout, a poster portrays presidential frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as a teacher, engineer, doctor and judge, reassuring supporters who see him as Egypt's savior. But in other neighborhoods, opponents splash red paint on the image of the face of the man who toppled Egypt's first freely-elected president, and who they say has blood on his hands for ordering a violent crackdown. The former army chief is expected to easily win a May...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian explosives experts defused two primitive bombs planted on the Cairo metro line on Thursday, the state news agency reported, causing a partial closure of the network. The bombs had been found 100 metres (yards) from Helmeyet el-Zaytoun station in northeast Cairo. (Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Patrick Graham)

LONDON (Reuters) - Qatar-based satellite network Al Jazeera has written to world powers asking them to secure the release of one of its journalists jailed in Egypt, accusing the authorities in Cairo of endangering his life. In a letter seen by Reuters, a lawyer acting for the pan-Arab network said the health of Abdullah Elshamy, one of four Al Jazeera reporters being held in Egypt, was "of the gravest possible concern and in need of immediate attention". ...

CAIRO, March 19 (Reuters) - Egyptian police arrested the former Libyan ambassador to Egypt and a cousin of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Tuesday, a security source told Reuters. Ahmed Gaddafuldam, a cousin of Gaddafi who had been a special envoy at the Egyptian embassy and former ambassador Ali Maria were both arrested by Egyptian police and were on an Interpol list. Police surrounded Gaddafuldam's apartment during his arrest, the source said. ...

After a period of hiatus due to Egypt's political turbulence the Cairo Film Festival is back with a new director, a new concept and a new time slot. The 36th edition of Cairo, which is the oldest fest in the Arab and African worlds belonging to international fest org, FIAPF, is scheduled to run Nov. 9-18 with veteran Egyptian film critic Samir Farid ( pictured ) at the helm. The prestigious fest was cancelled in 2011 and also in 2013 after a a rocky 2012 edition. Its customary...